In re Saunders' Estate

• Decision Date: 30 June 1958
• Citation: In re Saunders' Estate, 143 A.2d 367, 393 Pa. 527 (Pa. 1958)
• Parties: In re ESTATE OF Emily M. SAUNDERS, Deceased. Appeal of Joseph N. BONGIOVANNI, Jr., Guardian and Trustee ad litem.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

143 A.2d 367

393 Pa. 527

In re ESTATE OF Emily M. SAUNDERS, Deceased. Appeal of Joseph N. BONGIOVANNI, Jr., Guardian and Trustee ad litem.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

June 30, 1958.

Joseph N. Bongiovanni, Jr., Philadelphia, for appellant.

White Williams & Scott, Leroy E. Perper, Richard W. Hopkins Philadelphia, for appellee.

Before BELL, MUSMANNO, ARNOLD, BENJAMIN R. JONES and COHEN JJ.

BELL, Justice.

Emily M. Saunders, testatrix, died on March 22, 1951, leaving a last will dated April 30, 1935. She left her residuary estate in trust for certain persons and purposes. Item Tenth of the will provides: 'Tenth: My Executor and Trustee shall have power to retain as part of my estate any investments I may have made, whether legal or not, it being my desire that the same shall not be needlessly sacrificed; and I direct that my Executor and Trustee shall have power to invest and reinvest in Government Bonds only ^[1] or Bonds guaranteed by the Government.'

The trustee filed a partial account for the period April 23, 1953 to March 27, 1957. This account showed an investment on March 27, 1957 in ten shares of the 5% cumulative preferred stock of General Motors Corporation and a sale of said stock on the same day, with a resultant loss of $26.63. The guardian and trustee ad litem demanded that the trustee be surcharged for this loss because the investment was unauthorized by the will. The Auditing Judge imposed a surcharge. The exceptions filed by the trustee were sustained by three Judges, with two Judges dissenting, and the Court instructed the guardian and trustee ad litem to appeal from this decision to this Court. The guardian and trustee ad litem thereupon took this appeal from the lower Court's final decree.

Section 18 of the Fiduciaries Investment Act of 1949, P.L. 1828, 20 P.S. § 821.18 provides:

'The testator or settlor in the instrument establishing the trust may prescribe the powers, duties and liabilities of the fiduciary regarding the investment or non investment of principal and income and the acquisition, by purchase or otherwise, retention, and disposition, by sale or otherwise, of any property which, at any time or by reason of any circumstances, shall come into his control; and whenever any such provision shall conflict with this act, such provision shall control notwithstanding this act. In the absence, however, of any express restriction to the contrary in the trust instrument, the fiduciary may invest in any investment authorized by this act.'

The testator's intention is the pole star in the construction of every will and that intention must be ascertained from the language and scheme of his will; it is not what the Court thinks he might or would or should have said in the existing circumstances, or even what the Court thinks he meant to say but what is the meaning of...